Pay settlements

A quarter of private sector deals have seen rises of over 3% on basic rates so far in the 2012-13 pay round. However, with pay freezes, the average pay rise is 2.5%, according to an analysis in Workplace Report, Labour Research Department’s magazine for shops stewards and union negotiators.

The 2.5% rise is based on around 400 settlements from LRD’s Payline database, 350 with a known percentage increase on the lowest basic rate.

Where direct comparisons could be made, a fifth of pay deals have improved on the previous year, in some cases due to a pre-agreed increase following a negotiated freeze.

In most cases, however, direct comparisons point to a lower pay rise in this pay round than the last, confirming the difficulty facing many negotiators.

The latest analysis of settlements from the Labour Research Department’s Payline database of collective agreements shows that in the three months to March the median (midpoint) for all settlements was 2.7%, down on the 2.8% figure for February.

The Payline figures for increases in basic pay vary by sector; private sector settlements had a median increase of 2.8%, but the public sector median was only 1.0%, reflecting the public sector pay freeze; both of these figures were unchanged on February. In manufacturing, the median was steady at 2.6%, and the service sector median was steady at 3.0%.

www.lrd.org.uk/index.php?pagid=18

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